Jarrod groggily looked around the room not believing someone was knocking on the door this early in the morning. Then suddenly he jumped out of bed; Mary had gone to the sheriff. He was panic stricken as to what he should do next. He grabbed his gun from his gun belt and crept quietly to the door.

He heard Mary call softly, "Jarrod, it's me Mary. Please open the door."

Jarrod looked at Abby who was still sleeping and contemplated his next move. This could be a set up so when he opened the door the sheriff would come charging in. However if he fought Abby could get hurt...Mary's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Jarrod please it's Mary."

Jarrod heard the desperation in her voice and hoped he had not made a mistake in opening up to her. He slowly opened the door while holding the gun cocked and ready behind the door. As Mary stepped in Jarrod stuck his head outside the door and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't see anyone else. He quickly closed the door and locked it.

Mary was taken back by the expression on Jarrod's face; he was angry but she didn't know why.

"What in the devil are you doing here so early?" Jarrod asked.

Mary frowned at him and said, "I had to speak to you."

Jarrod sat down heavily on the bed as he put his gun back in the gun belt. He rubbed his eyes and yawned; he had been up half the night worried Mary would turn him in. Jarrod looked at Mary and asked harshly, "Well?"

Mary noticed the scowl on the attorney's face and decided to ignore it for the time being as she reached in her bag and handed Jarrod the train schedule. She pointed to the paper and said, "Which train do you want to leave on?"

Jarrod closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "I need one that has a car for my horse."

"Your horse?"

"Yes my horse. I will not leave without him."

Mary shook her head but continued, "I believe as long as you pay for it the car can be hooked up for your horse."

Jarrod glanced at the schedule and said, "The eleven o'clock train should be fine. That will give me plenty of time to get Abby and myself ready."

Jarrod handed her the schedule back while he got up to get his wallet. He sat back down and handed her one hundred dollars knowing that should be plenty to get him, Abby and Jingo to Oregon.

Mary looked at the money, "Jarrod I'm sure you won't need this much." She tried to hand some of the money back to Jarrod who refused it.

"I appreciate you doing this for me so consider it a gift."

Mary smiled and said, "Well I appreciate that and I already know what I am going to spend it on."

Jarrod raised his eyebrow to her and said, "What's that?"

"A ticket to Medford Oregon."

Jarrod frowned and growled, "NO!"

Mary chuckled, "It's a free world isn't it? And if I want to go to Medford you can't stop me."

Jarrod got up and said, "It's too dangerous and you know it."

Mary stood up and walked behind Jarrod, "Jarrod I have thought about this all night and there is nothing you can say that will change my mind. Besides don't you think you'd blend into the crowd a little bit better if it appeared you were travelling with your wife and daughter?"

Jarrod continued to glare at Mary, "NO!"

Mary shrugged her shoulders, "You can't stop me." Mary walked away from Jarrod and covered Abby with a blanket and said, "You yourself said her father is looking for her, which means he's looking for a man and child not a family."

Jarrod turned to look at Mary and knew she was right but it was still a huge risk. "I can't ask you to do that."

Mary smiled and said, "You're not, I volunteered. Besides I need a change of location."

Jarrod knew arguing with her would probably be a waste of time and she was right that they would probably blend in a lot better if they appeared to be a family instead of just him and Abby. "What about your job?"

"I quit this morning. Don't you remember when I told you yesterday Lincoln was only a stepping stone for me? Well I have stepped enough here and I'm ready to step somewhere else."

Jarrod just shook his head. "Fine."

Mary laughed, "You don't sound too excited."

Jarrod sighed, "Travelling with one woman has been a challenge," he motioned to Abby, "I can only imagine what it will be like travelling with two."

"In her defense any person would get testy after they had been on the trial for seven days and it rained five of those days." Mary said as she put her hands on her hips.

Jarrod rubbed his temple as he felt a headache coming on. "Fine, I don't feel like arguing with you right now."

Mary smiled and said, "Don't worry about Jingo, I'll see that the livery owner has him delivered to the stock car by ten. I'll meet you in front of the train depot at ten thirty?"

"Yes."

Mary laughed at Jarrod, "It won't be that bad, I promise."

"We'll see."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"He left on the seven am train this morning headed to Lincoln," the Sheriff told the Barkley's.

Victoria spoke, "He must have found out something. We need to follow him."

"But mother we don't know if this is a wild goose chase or not."

Victoria looked sternly at Nick, "I seriously doubt Mr. Wells would go to Lincoln to send us on a wild goose chase, do you?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders and said, "I guess not. I just think someone needs to stay here and keep searching."

Audra said, "But he's not here Nick."

"I meant searching for more clues."

The sheriff laughed, "What clues Mr. Barkley? Your brother has covered his tracks very well. I tend to agree with your mother on this one. I'll send a wire to the sheriff in Lincoln to keep an eye out for Wells."

Victoria asked, "Are you going to mention my son?"

The sheriff smiled, "No ma'am. Right now your son is not a wanted man and since I don't know the sheriff I would rather not alert him as to why Wells is going to Lincoln. I will merely ask him to keep an eye on him since we are still trying to work out the details of the assault on Sister Catherine."

"Thank you sheriff." The family left to go pack their bags and head to Lincoln.